LITERATURE: Octavio Paz, Media, and Mexican Politics

Abstract: 

Priscila Dorella questions the controversy behind the political affiliations of Mexican author Octavio Paz, as well as his motives for establishing himself as a public political persona.

Mexican poet Octavio Paz (1914–1998) died well aware of the success of his intellectual contributions. In addition to winning a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1990, over the course of his career Paz received more than 200 awards from around the world and witnessed the emergence of numerous studies devoted to the analysis of his poetry, literary criticism, and essays like El laberinto de la soledad (The Labyrinth of Solitude, 1950). But while the poet receives unconditional praise for his literary works in Mexico, his political ideas have often been stifled and ignored.

Author: 
Priscila Dorella
Deborah Meacham
Publication date: 
August 16, 2017
Publication type: 
Berkeley Review of Latin American Studies Article